iTunes #2 in Music Sales, New MacBooks Have Reduced Battery Life and 2GB iPod shuffle On Sale.

iTunes eyes Wal-Mart for top spot: iTunes music sales have garnered it the number two position in retail music sales surpassing Best Buy. Wal-Mart still dominates the music market. While online sales continue to grow, physical CD sales continue to drop, while P2P sharing of music has held steady.

New machines, less battery life: In all the excitement of new MacBooks and MacBook Pros, the fact that the new machines have actually less battery life may have passed you by. MacBooks will run for 4.5 hours now instead of the previous six, MacBook Pros drop from six hours to five and the 17-inch MacBook Pro goes from 5.75 to 4.5. Remember to pack those extra batteries.

2GB Shuffle on sale: The MacBook excitement also overshadowed the new 2GB iPod shuffle being available for sale right... Now.

Microcopy: After years of fanboy declarations that Microsoft copies Apple, a Microsoft developer has confirmed it.

Why no MacBook Multi-Touch: Puzzled as to why the MacBook Pro gets Multi-Touch love while the MacBook gets the same old trackpad? Gizmodo gave the Apple folks a call and was told, " The Multi-Touch technology is a feature of the MacBook Pro and Air, but not the MacBook." If must have Multi-Touch, save up all your nickels and dimes.

Apple TV and HDCP:BoingBoing reports consumers have problems getting their updated Apple TV to play rented iTunes videos on non-HDCP compatible TVs. HDCP is a form of DRM that stops video from being played over HDMi and DVI if you don't own compatible hardware. Anyone else with this issue, sound off in the comments section.

Apple the choice of thieves: If you live in Williamsburg and own an Apple product you might want to secure it to something heavy. Recently, 78% of burgled computers in the Brooklyn neighborhood were Macs.

Comments

Anonymous

February 26, 2008 at 8:10pm

You say that Gizmodo said that apple gave them the brush off when they asked about keeping touch stuff out of the MacBook so why didn't you call them and get us the information that we need? Apple is being really hard ass about keeping the good stuff expensive, don't you think? Ask them because we can't.

Anonymous

February 26, 2008 at 5:44pm

From what i understand the battery life is probably the same but apples old estimates had wifi disabled but now the estimates are with the airport on

Anonymous

February 26, 2008 at 5:03pm

You know....even with the said six hours of battery for the older generation...I've never gotten even 5 hours with wireless and bluetooth off and power saving on and the screen at its dimmest setting....

Randy

February 26, 2008 at 3:00pm

Not only do the thieves have good taste, but apparently so do the residents of that neighborhood. "78% of burgled computers in the Brooklyn neighborhood were Macs." Maybe I should move in.